Biology

Gyarados is a serpentine Chinese dragon-like Pokémon. It is mostly blue, with a yellow underbelly and yellow spots along its body. It has a three-pointed, dark blue crest on its head and four white fins down its back. Its mouth is very large and gaping, bearing four canine teeth. It has one barbel on each side of its face. The barbels are white on a female and the same color as the main body on a male. When Gyarados is forced to undergo evolution, it retains Magikarp's red coloring, leading to the phenomena of the Red Gyarados.

Its fangs can crush stones and its scales are harder than steel. Gyarados is infamously known for its fierce temper and wanton destructive tendencies, and is attracted to violence. In addition, Gyarados is also notoriously difficult to tame even after it is captured by the Trainer, usually requiring an exceptional amount of work in taming it until it can obey its Trainer. Gyarados usually lives in large bodies of water, such as lakes and ponds or even seas and oceans.

In the anime

Gyarados in the anime

Red Gyarados in the anime

Major appearances

Misty obtained a Gyarados after passing the PIA test in Cerulean Blues. Prior to the test, Misty was terrified of Gyarados, but in order to pass the test, she had to overcome her fear of it. In the end, she calmed and kept the Gyarados.

Groups of Gyarados were seen from within a submarine disguised as or styled after a Gyarados by Jessie, James, and Meowth in The Pi-Kahuna shortly before the onset of a massive, annual tidal wave celebrated by local surfers who were apparently not aware of the annual migration. According to James, the Gyarados gathered each year in this location to lay their eggs.

In Mewtwo Strikes Back, a Gyarados owned by Fergus was one of the Pokémon that were captured and cloned by Mewtwo. Fergus attacked Mewtwo with Gyarados's Hyper Beam, but Mewtwo turned the attack back on it, knocking the Gyarados out. The Gyarados clone is seen again in Mewtwo Returns. Before Mewtwo appeared, Ash commented that he had heard that Gyarados were hard to train.

A Red Gyarados was seen in the Lake of Rage three years later, but it was caught by Silver. It had the ability to control the other Gyarados in the lake.

When Red borrows Blue's Charizard to travel to Mt. Silver, he temporarily trades his Gyarados to Blue. It later appears as one of Blue's Pokémon in Entranced by Entei, used against Entei, and later part of his revealed team during the Gym Leader faceoff. Prior to the FireRed and LeafGreen saga, Blue returns Gyarados to Red.

Other appearances

Trophy Information

"An Atrocious Pokémon rarely seen in the wild. When it does appear, it's usually running rampant in a destructive rage--behavior that has the unfortunate side effect of leaving whole cities in ruin. It is said that when humans begin a conflict, Gyarados incinerates the towns of both warring parties. There are records of a Gyarados rampage lasting as long as a month. Its pre-evolution form is Magikarp."

Trivia

Gyarados is tied with Magikarp and Regigigas for being the lowest level Pokémon encountered in the wild, as well as also tied with Magikarp for the highest level Pokémon encountered in the wild. In Black 2 and White 2, Gyarados can be found at levels ranging from level 1 to 100 in the Nature Preserve by using a Super Rod in rippling water.

As of Black 2 and White 2, Gyarados is used by three of the seven Pokémon League Champions, being used by Blue, Lance, and Wallace, making it the most popular Pokémon among Pokémon League Champions thus far (although Blue does not always have a Gyarados, depending on the player's starter Pokémon). However, Blue is the only one to use it in the Pokémon World Tournament.

Gyarados is the heaviest Flying-type Pokémon and the second largest, being surpassed in length by Rayquaza.

In many ways, Gyarados is the counterpart of Milotic. Both are the serpentine evolved forms of weak fish Pokémon, and both appear in times of conflict, Gyarados to destroy, Milotic to becalm. Both have base stat totals of 540, the only difference being the distribution of their Attack, Special Attack and Special Defense stats.

Origin

It appears to be based on a sea dragon or sea serpent. Gyarados is partially based on a legend about how carp that leapt over the Dragon Gate would become dragons. Several waterfalls and cataracts in China are believed to be the location of the Dragon Gate. This is referenced by Pokémon Snap, as the player needs to get a Magikarp into a waterfall to evolve it into Gyarados. This legend is an allegory of the drive and efforts needed to overcome obstacles (which can be tied to the fact that Gyarados' pre-evolution, Magikarp, could possibly take a lot of drive and effort to legitimately evolve into Gyarados).

Name origin

Gyarados may derive from 虐殺 gyakusatsu (massacre/slaughter) or 逆境 gyakkyō (hardship/adversity)—both words relate to the creature's violent nature and the hardship it experienced before evolving. In addition, 逆 gyaku means "reverse" or "contrary", possibly referencing on how it evolves from a pathetically weak Pokémon to one capable of destroying entire cities and how in legend that the carp goes against the flow of the waterfall in order to reach the top. It may also involve 嵐 arashi (storm) or 争い arasoi (conflict, referencing on how it appeared during wars). The last part may be from ドス dosu (onomatopoeia for the piercing of flesh, again owing to Gyarados' violent nature). Alternatively, dos may indicate that it is the second in its evolutionary line.